Brazil is well placed to supply labor to the global offshoring market, given the country’s strong telecommunications infrastructure, attractive market for IT vendors, and relatively low costs. However, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that weak English-language skills and a lack of international experience among Brazilian workers make many of them unsuitable for employment in the eyes of multinational companies. Brazil must address these labor shortcomings and other issues if it hopes to capitalize on its considerable potential as an offshoring destination.

An MGI study examined offshore talent in 28 low-wage countries and 8 moderate- to high-wage ones. This article assesses Brazil’s position relative to 10 other low-wage countries included in the broader analysis.¹ (The full report, The Emerging Global Labor Market, Part II—The Supply of Offshore Talent in Services, is available free of charge online.)

Surprisingly perhaps, Brazil’s advantages start with its infrastructure. Although transportation is widely regarded as a weakness, we found that the country’s offshoring infrastructure is top among the developing countries we studied. The quality of Brazil’s telecom and network services, for instance, surpasses both...